Norwich 1-1 Post Match Thread

[Chrysalis]

Not sure why we didnt keep the same formation and line up in the games that had us a 3 PPG average against bottom 14 teams, the 442 more direct I think is useful against the big 6, but I feel we should have kept with our successful system.

 

Was perez injured?

 

It felt like I was watching Leicester from 3 years ago, been outplayed, and players not setting up attacks properly.

Edited 15 December 2019 by Chrysalis

[Chrysalis]

2 hours ago, reynard said:

Bit of a train crash from start to finish. First up Norwich played well. Their full backs were spot on, they competed for everything and had two of the best players on the pitch. However, the constant rolling around pretending to be injured was tiresome and quite how noone was sent off for the Kelechi incident is beyond me.

 

As for us we simply had no idea how to really break them down. I'm not a fan of this diamond shape on the whole and though we did well at Villa with it, more times than not we struggle.

Positive is we didn't lose but were lucky to get away with it. Need to improve hugely not get absolutely stuffed by both Man City and Liverpool. Play like that and Everton will beat us too in the cup.

If we are serious about a top 4 finish we have a lot of work to do and a top quality winger/wide player who can actually score goals is a necessity. I'm sorry but none of them are good enough. Barnes may be one day but he's currently hopeless in front of goal and he and Chilwell seem to be on a completely different wavelength most of the time.

Maddison had his worst game ever for us.

Not sure Rodgers got it right today at all.

 

Barnes needs to be told to shoot only when there isnt another option, allowing him to shoot when he wants is hurting the team.  We know how much Gray has improved now he passes instead of shooting on sight.

 

But in this particular game we were bad in general, I didnt see any proper built up attacks and we lost in midfield, which is something that is weird for Rodgers, we need to stick to the formation we played before against bottom 14 teams.

Edited 15 December 2019 by Chrysalis

[trabuch]

Kinell. We've drawn against a highly motivated (for whatever reason) Norwich side (after Liverpool won against a Watford side side that couldn't even shoot against - let alone hit, a barn door), and everyone seems to have gone into a state of despair. It wasn't a bad performance today. In fact it was a better performance than Liverpools (and they were playing the bottom team). Norwich turn it on against the top sides. 

[Deeg67]

6 hours ago, Abrasive fox said:

Found Norwich quite cynical, going down constantly and surrounding the ref. Loads of time wasting as well. 

 

Still if it takes their best performance of the season and our worst then it shows how far we've come when we're still getting a point.

Manchester City would take issue with "best performance".

[Tom12345]

7 hours ago, Royston. said:

Winning run killed

Vardy goal scoring run killed

 

by Norwich City

Could it be:

 

- Vardy scored ... winning run was to continue

- Vardy goal turned into an OG ... winning run was also turned?

[TJB-fox]

40 minutes ago, trabuch said:

Kinell. We've drawn against a highly motivated (for whatever reason) Norwich side (after Liverpool won against a Watford side side that couldn't even shoot against - let alone hit, a barn door), and everyone seems to have gone into a state of despair. It wasn't a bad performance today. In fact it was a better performance than Liverpools (and they were playing the bottom team). Norwich turn it on against the top sides. 

Agreed. We’ve played incredibly poorly for whatever reason, one of our worst games of the season. Norwich were great, like you said turn it on against the bigger clubs- best performance of their season Farke said...

...and we still could’ve won it fairly comfortably. They had their chances but so did we. I’m not overly worried about this performance, a point in the premiership when you’re at your worst and your opposition is at their very best could be a lot worse. We’d have lost that game under Puel or Shakespeare. With Chelsea losing at home too it’s not the end of the world. Hope Arsenal and Everton are at the races tomorrow.

[Ted Maul]

3 really poor performances in a row at home- this result was overdue.

 

I'm not sure what's going on, we just seem devoid of ideas and there's absolutely no movement up front.

 

We need to sort it out if we fancy the champions league. Carry on this home form and we've got no chance. 

[ozleicester]

YOUNG side.

We had an off day... and still managed a draw.

 

[Ted Maul]

Impressed with Norwich though. Play like that for the rest of the season and they'll be fine.

[Tom12345]

To play a good diamond, our no. 10 really needs to be worldclass. Maddison is great but he is not a Courtino yet. Also, Maddison himself needed to drop down to help get the ball up the pitch from Chilwell (to a lesser extent Ricardo), so it reduces his effectiveness at no. 10. I don’t think we have the players over the pitch that are good enough and ready to play a diamond that can compete at the very top of the table. It may be good enough for mid table. Perhaps Rodgers knew but he thought it was a good time to experiment against the second lowest side - backfired!

[NeilLCFC]

Bin the diamond please.

[Tom12345]

27 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

YOUNG side.

We had an off day... and still managed a draw.

 

It was not an off day. Our initial tactics meant we asked our players to be something they are not ready yet - you really need a worldclass attacking midfield who know how to play in a diamond to do work.

 

A reality check but relying on Chilwell on the left for example to be the sole attacking spark there is not going to lead us to comfortable wins - he is not a natural attacker.

 

Maddison is also not quite there yet at no. 10 (he is getting better) plus he often drops back to help the ball up the pitch because Chilwell otherwise is not good enough to play the ball forward effectively in a diamond. Ricardo can also do better but I guess he needs to learnt the system as well - he misplaced a lot of passes yesterday too.

 

So, at this moment, 4-1-5-1 still suits us more in light of the players we have and the game we want to play. This system relies much less on individual brilliance to create chances because we basically throw 5 forward as a unit to carve out chances with each having a job to do.  Some people kept talking about diamond at Villa and how we scored two goals - but we were not dominating and we were certainly creating less chances overall.  Second half was much better with the no of clear cut chances created. Look at the stats.

 

Unless we have Messi or Courtino or the like in midfield, I much rather that we rely on the system (ie. 4-1-5-1) to create chances than hoping some individual brilliance will do it (eg. Nacho or Ricardo threading a needle through-ball) in a diamond, because that will mean we invariably will have off games when these individuals have an off day or when the opposition figures out how to nullify the particular individuals.

Edited 15 December 2019 by Tom12345

[OadbyBlue]

Don’t understand the bin the diamond talk  when we were just as off and uncreative in the 55 mins without it as the 40 with

[nelbert]

there playing like we  never seen them play before iam well happy they pass the ball enough to make us smile i think these lads magic  up the city  fvck u all  if its not there for  u   there magic

[Tom12345]

30 minutes ago, OadbyBlue said:

Don’t understand the bin the diamond talk  when we were just as off and uncreative in the 55 mins without it as the 40 with

Not sure I’d agree with that. We did create more than the first 40 but Norwich was already in the ascendancy and we felt the pressure in getting the result. In the first 40, we were playing Puel ball and it looked like we were going to lose. At least we drew.

[fox_favourite]

A game like that was always on the cards after the run we were on. Fair play to Norwich who I thought were good for the point. The closed us down well and stopped the space in the middle and we struggled with that. We definitely had an off day as well, and thought we looked a bit tired in the second half. But we have to give credit to Norwich. 

 

I do think the formation we started with hindered us a bit a the right chsnges were made, but disappointed with the gray and Barnes. Ndidi was immense and without him, we could have lost it. 

 

Disappointed, but not disheartened

Edited 15 December 2019 by fox_favourite

[Chocolate Teapot]

7 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

Manchester City would take issue with "best performance".

Their manager said it was their best performance.

[StriderHiryu]

10 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

One big plus today was meeting up beforehand with @StriderHiryu, who is every bit as friendly, interesting and good company as you might hope from his posts. Thanks for the drink, fella, I look forward to the next time.

Likewise! I can also confirm HighPeakFox has a blistering turn of pace, though only for around 5 seconds !

[Pliskin]

6 hours ago, Ted Maul said:

3 really poor performances in a row at home- this result was overdue.

 

I'm not sure what's going on, we just seem devoid of ideas and there's absolutely no movement up front.

 

We need to sort it out if we fancy the champions league. Carry on this home form and we've got no chance. 

Yea, Villa was wank wasn’t it......

 

So typical of FT to start losing its shit when something doesn’t go to plan. You can’t win every game, When you start a game and things aren’t going to plan it is usually hard to get back into it. It wasn’t a desperate performance we just couldn’t find our rhythm which will happen from time to time. The main thing is we didn’t lose the game and we still gained a point. 
 

Liverpool are done, the league title is theirs, we just need to focus on solidifying that top four position, which we will.

[foxinsox]

Credit to Norwich, they play good attacking football, and have improved their defence, and in Pukki have an instinctive goalscorer.

 

We had an off day, but I wasn't impressed by the substitutions. Keletchi got the start because of recent form and let the side down. 2 strikers does take one out of the midfield, so hence the diamond.

 

Keletchi lost his head after the incident, was going to get sent off, so needed to come off. Gray did nothing to justify a starting place, and taking Praet off was a mistake, Tielemans should have come off instead.

 

What did we learn? Nacho has talent and is a good striking option, but very fragile psychologically. Confidence and immaturity will be his Achilles heel. No one else had a truly bad performance, but neither Tielemans nor Maddison got in the game. Norwich know Maddison well of course, so knew how to do a job on them.

 

Norwich pressed well and played total football at times. Credit to them, and I hope they stay up, but I see why their style of play has led to injury crisis after injury crisis.

[Ted Maul]

11 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Yea, Villa was wank wasn’t it......

 

So typical of FT to start losing its shit when something doesn’t go to plan. You can’t win every game, When you start a game and things aren’t going to plan it is usually hard to get back into it. It wasn’t a desperate performance we just couldn’t find our rhythm which will happen from time to time. The main thing is we didn’t lose the game and we still gained a point. 
 

Liverpool are done, the league title is theirs, we just need to focus on solidifying that top four position, which we will.

Talking about the home form- we got away with it against Everton and Watford were so bad that it didn't matter, but that's 3 in a row where we haven't really got going. Definitely need to make improvements if we want top 4. 

[Deeg67]

41 minutes ago, Abrasive fox said:

Their manager said it was their best performance.

Manchester City would take issue with "best performance".

[Crinklyfox]

Reality check.  We are not the best team in the Premier League.  We have some very good players and an outstanding manager but we are work in progress.  There are positions in the team and on the bench that we need to strengthen if we are to improve.  So far City have been punching above their weight and exceeding the expectations of most of us - let's not forget that at the start of the season the aim was a final league position that would give us European football.  

 

I'm very happy at the overall achievement of the team so far and accept the reality that things won't always go so well.  We're still on an upward trajectory and I see no sign of that stopping in the near future.  There will be bumps in the road but the future is bright.

[Guest Markyblue]

Just a reality check for some on here, we are not going to win every game,  teams are not going to roll over for us, we are still a work in progress,  and finally this is probably as good a team as we have ever had so enjoy the moment,  wasn't that many years ago we were happy to beat the likes of Rotherham and mk dons.

[Pliskin]

7 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

Talking about the home form- we got away with it against Everton and Watford were so bad that it didn't matter, but that's 3 in a row where we haven't really got going. Definitely need to make improvements if we want top 4. 

Respectfully I disagree. Everton have had a lot of bad luck off and on the field, they’re not a terrible side they came and took the game to us  but we still found a way to win. Watford also gave it a real go also and we saw them off 2-0 and then eventually blew Villa away. 
 

Today we got it wrong from the off, and as a result of this we allowed a very ballsy Norwich side a foothold in the game, after this we just couldn’t get into our usual rhythm and were unable to break Norwich down. The difference is Norwich are already scrapping for every ball, every tackle and every point. They also made it a very difficult game by taking the pace out of it at any given opportunity, on the day it was a pretty good away effort.

 

We had an off day, we’ve just won 8 games in a row, a feat never achieved in this league by this team and people are already rummaging through their negative boxes to dust off the white towel.... you can’t perform like a raging bull jacked up on testosterone every week, its simply not sustainable. We will have off days and Christmas is always a difficult period to negotiate due to the congested fixture list, so every now and then you can expect a leggy performance.

 

Forget this one, and move on to City where the lads will raise their game, we will bounce back and we will continue to be the second best team in this division.